The Delhi High Court has strongly reprimanded Wikipedia, the website that provides detailed information about personalities and events from around the world. The court has admonished Wikipedia for making changes to the page that gives details about news agency ANI. The bench said that if you don’t like India, then don’t work here. The court said that we will ask the government to block Wikipedia in India. The High Court has issued a contempt notice to Wikipedia and asked why it did not comply with the bench’s order that said it should give information about those people who made changes to the ANI page.
News agency ANI had filed a defamation case against Wikipedia. The agency said that the changes made in the information given about it were defamatory. Someone had made changes to the Wikipedia page about the agency and wrote that it is a propaganda tool of the current government. Hearing this, the court had ordered Wikipedia to provide information about the three people who had made changes to the page. Complaining about non-implementation in this case, the agency filed a defamation petition in the High Court on Thursday.
On this, Wikipedia’s lawyer said that we have given some information regarding your order. The lawyer said that give us time to appear in the court because Wikipedia’s work is not conducted from India. Justice Naveen Chawla strongly objected to this. He said that earlier also Wikipedia had given similar argument, hence it is rejected. The bench warned Wikipedia that contempt proceedings can be taken against you.
We will tell the government- you should be blocked here
The bench said, ‘We will take contempt action against you. This matter is not about whether Wikipedia runs from India or not. We will shut down your business here. We will ask the government to block Wikipedia in India. You people had made similar arguments earlier as well. If you don’t like India, then there is no need to do it here.’ Along with this, the court has issued a contempt notice to Wikipedia and has fixed the next hearing of the case in October.